lagoon of every vestige of their native grace. On such days of Church
festival--and these alone--they might have been mistaken for peasants of
some prosaic land, instead of the graceful, free-born Venetians that
they were, as, with no hint of their natural rhythm of motion, they
filed in cramped and orderly procession through the avenue that opened
to them in the crowd to the door of the church, where they disappeared
behind the great leather curtain.

It was a great day for the friars of the Servi, who were rivals of the
Frari both in learning and splendor, and the entire Servite Brotherhood,
black-robed and white-cowled, was just coming in sight over the little
marble bridge, preceded by youthful choristers, chanting as they came
and bearing with them that famous banner which had been sent them as a
gift from their oldest chapter of San Annunziata in Florence, and which
was the early work of Raphael.

A small urchin, leaning far over the edge of the quay and craning his
neck upward for a better view, reported some special attraction in this
approaching group which elicited yells of vociferous greeting from his
colleagues, with such forceful emphasis of his own curling, expressive
toes, that he lost his balance and rolled over into the water; from
which he was promptly rescued by a human ladder, dexterously let down to
him in sections, without a moment's hesitation, by his allies, who, like
all Venetian boys of the populace, were amphibious animals, full of
pranks.

But now there was no more time for fooling on the quay, for at the great
end-window of the library of the convent of the Frari it could be seen
that a procession of this body was forming and would presently enter the
church, and the fun would begin for those who understood Latin.